christmas gifts

The holiday season has been strong for retail sales overall, but some chains have still found lumps of coal in their stockings. And as the holiday season winds down, what's bad for retailers may be good for you.

As more shoppers spend their money online, retailers are deciding where to put their e-marketing. According to a new ForeSee study, promotional emails were still far more effective at driving traffic to retail sites than social networks like Facebook this holiday season.

When you were deciding what to do with your holiday shopping budget, you may have followed the prevailing advice for making your recipients happy and spent on experiences, not items. this season. But did you consider a possibly more important gift-giving goal than even the fun togetherness of...

Retail sales have perked up, but consumers aren't resuming their old habit of using credit cards to splurge on gifts. According to a new poll, more than half of American adults say they're sticking with cash this holiday shopping season.

More shoppers are flocking to the Web for the holidays, boosting online retail sales 12% over a year ago. In five weeks ending Dec. 3, Americans spent $17.5 billion on retail items on the Web, up from $15.7 billion in the year-ago period, according to a new report from ComScore.

Overspending can kill the Christmas spirit and ruin your finances for months. Writer Zoe FitzGerald Carter used the poor economy to cure herself of the destructive habit. Here's how she learned to create more Christmas magic for her family by spending less.

Retailers saw their sales figures jump in November with a strong Black Friday and a record-breaking Cyber Monday. The news could suggest this holiday season will be better than the last two, but could also mean that consumers have finished their shopping early.

As the market for electronic book readers has grown, Apple's iPad has been pulling e-reader market share away from Amazon.com's Kindle, according to a new report from ChangeWave Research. The Kindle's market share has slipped to 47% from 62% in three months.

It looks like online retailers had a good Cyber Monday: Early estimates indicate sales could have surpassed last year's numbers by 12.7% or more. But unlike Black Friday, Cyber Monday rarely has been the most important shopping day of the year for e-tailers.